Smoking is the main avoidable risk factor for oesophageal cancer, linked to an estimated 66% of oesophageal cancer cases in the UK. Smoking is also related to Barrett’s oesophagus, a precursor for oesophageal AC.

An estimated 89% of oesophageal cancers in the UK are linked to lifestyle factors including smoking, overweight and obesity (22%), and alcohol (21%).

The latest statistics available for oesophageal cancer in the UK are; incidence 2011, mortality 2012 and survival 2010-2011.

The ICD code for oesophageal cancer is ICD-10 C15.

Survival statistics give an overall picture of survival and (unless otherwise stated) include all adults (15-99) diagnosed, at all ages, stage and co-morbidities. The survival time experienced by an individual patient may be much higher or lower, depending on specific patient and tumour characteristics.

Meta-analyses and systematic reviews are cited where available, as they provide the best overview of all available research and most take study quality into account. Individual case-control and cohort studies are reported where such aggregated data are lacking.

Studies which group together the two main morphological types of oesophageal cancer – adenocarcinoma (AC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) – may be confounded, because there are some aetiological differences between the types. Studies which consider the types separately are used in our risk factors analysis wherever possible.

See information and explanations on terminology used for statistics and reporting of cancer, and the methods used to calculate some of the statistics are also available.

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